The skillful champ made good use of accurate and effective jabs against his free-swinging opponent, and weakened him with accurate body bombardments as the contest progressed. Japan's Uchiyama accelerated his attack in round nine, when he pinned the fading Perez to the ropes and battered him with vicious combinations upstairs and downstairs. The exhausted and damaged Argentine decided to stay on the stool rather than go for the tenth session.

Also on the card, Tokyo's Kohei Kono (30-8-1, 13 KOs) fought to a draw with challenger Norberto Jimenez (20-8-4, 10 KOs) of the Dominican Republic, and retained his WBA super-flyweight title.

Jimenez cost himself the fight when he repeatedly hit Kono below the belt and was then penalized a point for this midway through the sixth. One judge scored the bout 116-111 in favor of the aggressive Kono, one judge had it 115-112 for the counter-punching Jimenez and the third had it 114-114.

Taguchi floored the defending champion in the eighth and ninth rounds en route to a unanimous decision victory. The judges scored the fight 117-109, 116-110 and 116-111 for the former Japanese national champion.